Expatriate Healthcare News: 'Avoid bites to prevent malaria'

Expatriates and tourists visiting places where there is a risk of contracting malaria should ensure they take adequate medication and avoid mosquitoes, the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) has advised.

To avoid the risk of having to make a claim on their expat medical insurance, travellers should take simple steps to avoid getting malaria, including bite avoidance and taking anti-malaria tablets, Professor David Hill said.

‘Most often if you avoid those mosquito bites and take all the pills you are not going to get it,’ the director of NaTHNaC said.

His comments follow the news that Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole was taken to hospital earlier this week to be treated for malaria after contracting the disease on a trip to Tanzania.

Health Protection Agency travel health expert Dr Jane Jones noted that more than 1,500 people in the UK are diagnosed with malaria each year, having been infected with the disease on visits abroad.

Malaria occurs in tropical regions around the world and is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. It is preventable by taking the correct medication before, during and after a trip to a malaria-rife region and taking anti-bite precautions.

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